1932 Ford Roadster III Rebuilt

Forget the fact there are more than 5,000 man-hours in this ’32 Ford Roadster, and that it’s almost entirely scratch-built. Ignore the utterly insane details like the 2,000-plus, hand-tailored, stainless ARP fasteners individually modified for length, head height, and shoulder diameter, and hand-polished at both ends. You can even disregard the wickedly intricate, one-off torsion-bar suspension that was completely handmade. In fact, you’d even be forgiven for discounting the intricate finish work on the engine and undercarriage that’s as detailed as the real estate above ground. Why? Because the story behind this forgotten relic turned America’s Most Beautiful Roadster contender is as colorful as the car itself.

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As with most biographies, this one isn’t without tragedy, irony, or, ultimately, a happy ending. Let’s start where the good guy gets the break and the skeptics are left to suck eggs. The year was 2007, and a handful of pessimistic gearheads in Northern California unknowingly blew it, big time. The Craigslist ad read, “’32 Ford roadster body, partial frame and parts…asking $1,500 obo.” At that point in this ’32 Ford’s past, owner Nancy Garcia was looking to part ways with her husband’s roadster after his untimely passing. All Garcia got in response was a stack of rude emails and a handful of salty calls assuring her that the ’32 Ford couldn’t possibly be legit for the asking price. Unable to practically give it away, Garcia left the aged relic to continue its decay in her damp, underground San Francisco garage.

Months later, Garcia advertised the rest of the cluttered garage contents figuring if nobody wanted the roadster, at least someone might want the rest of the lot. A used Datsun 240Z motor included in the ad drew Bay Area rodder Robert Neumann to the garage, but the silhouette of a roadster buried among the rubble quickly overshadowed the ratty straight-six. There, under a dim overhead light, was the body of a modified ’32 Ford roadster teetering on its firewall. Next to the weathered sheetmetal were the remains of a homemade frame and a pile of miscellaneous parts. Ecstatic at the find, Neumann shared his hidden treasure with Paul Shaughnessy of New Metal Kustomz, who just happened to be looking for a ’60s-era project.

It took nearly a year of persistence, but Garcia finally relinquished her husband’s forgotten relic to Shaughnessy under two conditions: that it would remain in the Bay Area and eventually be restored to its former glory.

Nearly a half-decade after buying the Deuce, Shaughnessy held true to his word and reinvented ’32, which was unveiled at the ’12 Grand National Roadster Show (GNRS), exactly 50 years after its first appearance at the vaunted GNRS in Oakland. Yup, as Shaughnessy quickly discovered five years prior, this ’32 Ford has a history so unique that a story like this only comes but once in a lifetime.

When the remains of the roadster arrived at New Metal Kustomz in late 2007, the only leads the guys had were some spotty stories from Nancy Garcia and the painted Sylvester II logos flanking the cowl. It took months of digging, but just enough information surfaced to draw a faint line into this roadster’s past. Former owners were contacted, and word traveled across the wire that Sylvester had resurfaced after lying dormant for nearly 40 years. Piece-by-piece, the broken timeline was reassembled.

The story is spotty at times, but it goes something like this: The ’32 Ford body was purchased by Gaylord Scrievers in 1955 with the doors and decklid already welded shut and molded. Although it was previously modified, its stock frame and hideous rollbar hardly resembled the red roadster Scrievers would soon construct. He fabricated a tube frame, installed a new ’56 Buick nailhead and transmission, and followed up with a coat of candy-apple-red paint. The fiery hue was hot, but the ensemble wasn’t finished until a coworker brushed the Sylvester II logos onto the cowls–an ode to Scrievers’ favorite cartoon, Sylvester the Cat. Although the roadster’s first rendition (before Scrievers’ owned it) was never referred to as Sylvester, he nonetheless dubbed his revamp the successor.

Scrievers’ bravery in using the roadster as a daily driver proved he was a real rodder, but his enthusiasm waned with age (a trend that would reappear with various owners throughout the roadster’s life). He eventually sold it to a coworker, Gary Kidwell, who added significant upgrades and introduced the car to the show circuit. Kidwell later sold it to a friend and he to another and another, and so on throughout the ’60s. Laughably unusable, the roadster’s panache captivated each new owner with lust, but inevitably the real-world responsibilities set in and off it went. But not before each owner added their own touches. The chrome firewall, zoomie headers and six Stromberg 97s were added in 1961, and a year later Sylvester made its debut at the ’62 GNRS in Oakland. Its unique combination of cutting-edge suspension and wild features earned it a cover spot and feature in the Oct. ’63 issue of Car Craft. A few months later, it was sold again.

Sylvester took its last gasp of fresh air in 1968, when it was stripped down and parted out. The sad remains of the once local legend were traded to Albert Garcia to settle a debt in 1971, only to be stored in his garage for nearly 40 years until the time of his passing.

Now the revival part of the story. When Paul Shaughnessy bought the tattered remains in 2007, a portion of the frame still existed, along with the original rear wheels, a few interior panels, and some miscellaneous pieces—and that’s it.

12/26The engine is a ’56 Buick nailhead with a smoothed block and heads topped with five coats of paint and 10 of clear. The add-ons are stunningly polished: Fenton valve covers, valley tray, and spark-plug covers, and half a dozen Stromberg 97s on a Weiand intake with trick chain-drive linkage. That’s a Hildebrandt remote oil filter at the left, on the firewall that itself is polished and peaked. Note the amazing symmetry on the zoomies.

The two-man crew at New Metal Kustomz—Shaughnessy and Marcus Owens—knew a thing or two about building something from nothing, but they had no idea just how difficult it would be to return an incomplete car to its former glory. Unlike fabricating a one-off monster that can only be compared to its peers, rebuilding a former show car means the finished product will be judged against its predecessor for accuracy and completeness. On one end it must mirror the old one, but on the other, its fit and finish must be significantly better since today’s standards and expectations are far stricter than the days of old.

Pictures from the ’60s and conversations with old timers who remembered Sylvester II helped New Metal construct a rendition of the original frame. The handcrafted tube chassis features the original rails, but everything else was forged from raw stock. It’s easy to get lost in the artistry of the intersecting sections, intricate reinforcements, and gusseted sections, but small details like the front torsion bars running through the sculpted motor mounts, teardrop-shaped main rails, and the front watts link mounted from the radiator support all push this throwback into the realm of a jaw dropper. Of course, the 10 layers of clearcoat and five coats of House of Kolor Candy Apple Red throughout the undercarriage don’t hurt either. Close your eyes and point—guaranteed your finger lands on something that’ll blow your mind.

A fine chassis is nothing without a bitchin’ suspension setup, and Sylvester III’s was built from scratch to resemble the original design but outperform it in spades. As one would expect from an AMBR front-runner, the quality of the craftsmanship is flawless. Take, for, example the torsion-bar receivers that were made from scratch and consist of a dozen individual pieces. These handbuilt units are made of stainless steel and feature splined inputs for added adjustability. Speaking of adjustments, the car was corner-balanced prior to its completion. The splined torsion bars were tempered to achieve the desired ride height and then polished to perfection. The solid stainless hairpins were heated in a kiln and bent to the exact lengths before mating to handbuilt batwings that swing on early Ford tie-rod ends—a period-perfect touch that gets better when you notice the early lever shocks.

13/26Fifty years after Sylvester debutted at the ’62 Grand National Roadster Show, it made another showing and took home Best Paint, Best Engine, and Best Undercarriage. The reversed Buick wheels out back came with the car when it was rediscovered; they had to be totally cut apart for detailing. The backsides are painted cream for a finished look.

The rear suspension is no less stunning, with the removable frame dropouts running underneath the Currie 9-inch rearend. The pumpkin received equal amounts of attention with special gussets to secure the Watts link, and the rear torsion-bar receivers poking through the floorboards further drive home the point this car is old-school cool.

The car’s 0.030-over 401 Buick nailhead is as bad as it is beautiful. On the inside it’s got lightly massaged heads and a custom bumpstick from Comp Cams. On the outside the block and heads were molded and sculpted along with brackets, tags, accessories and any other unneeded extremities that were ground smooth. The bare metal received the same paint treatment as the undercarriage, and the body got five coats of paint and 10 coats of clear.

No roadster is complete without a wicked induction system and the six Stromberg 97s sit proudly atop the authentic Weiand log-style manifold and are commanded by a Clive prototype linkage that New Metal took one step further with its own chain-operated throttle- and shift-linkage adaptations. No ’60s-era rod would be complete without such ancillaries as zoomie headers; Fenton valve-, valley-, and spark-plug covers; and an original Mallory dual-point distributor. Only the keenest of eyes will catch the Hildebrandt remote oil filter in the hand-formed firewall bulkheads, and all but the most observant will miss the hidden wiring running inside a fake fuel line. Don’t worry, we missed it, too.

The chrome firewall is a thing of beauty and an ode to Sylvester II, which had a cool-for-the-time 12-gauge plate affixed to the firewall. The current 3⁄16-inch unit is far more polished, as it’s gapped and flowed into the body and plays home to a variety of bulkheads and plenty of engine accessories. Running block for the mighty nailhead is a handformed fan shroud that hugs a matching handmade radiator and curved lower tank that splits around the mount for the front Watts link. The grille is no less impressive, as it was also forged one painstaking bar at a time; can you say, patience?

Inside the cockpit, white tuck-’n’-roll leather from Plante Interior Co. sets the tone for the times, and the original Stewart- Warner gauges and original ’59 Impala steering wheel somehow survived the times. Other must-haves are the eye-high shifter, handmade pedals and the bomber seats. You’ve probably never witnessed a crazy chain shifter and throttle linkage like this one, nor have you likely seen torsion-bar receivers popping through the floorpan.

It took some Dick Tracy work, but the original paint color was uncovered after reviving it enough for a glimpse into the past. A Solar Gold base became the foundation for five coats of candy-red followed by 10 coats of clear and a boatload of sanding. The New Metal crew did the paint, while Brandon Flaner did the stripe work on the motor and undercarriage. Did you notice the subtle striping on the body, undercarriage, engine, and its surrounding components? If you didn’t, that’s the point; it’s supposed to look like it belongs there.

17/26Zoomie headers are a little played out these days, but when Sylvester was first created they were cutting edge. These versions differ from the originals with modified bends to better match the lines of the body.

Body mods may look like they were kept to a minimum compared with the original work from the ’60s, but New Metal made plenty of changes. The original Sylvester had some mild channel work and never had such amenities as floors. New Metal fixed that with 1⁄8-inch plate floors for added rigidity and further channeled the body to a full 5 inches over the frame. All of the original lead used to weld and mold the doors, decklid and cowl vent in the ’50s was preserved since it’s only original once. The split-V windshield and zoomie headers are now different, but a quick glance at the original Sylvester II makes it apparent that New Metal’s subtle additions are miles better than the original equipment.

After a long haul bringing this forgotten relic back to life, New Metal made the trek to the ’12 GNRS, where Sylvester stunned the crowds just as it had a half-century before. Although it didn’t win the ’12 AMBR award, Sylvester III garnered Best Paint, Best Engine, and Best Undercarriage—not bad for a bucket-of- bolts-turned-show-car built by a handful of 30-year-olds with raw talent and plenty of ambition.

It took nearly 40 years for this roadster to resurface and be rescued and revived. But one look at its latest reincarnation, and it’s proof that fairytale stories still exist, and that good guys do finish first. So the next time you dismiss an online ad for trash, maybe you’ll think twice.

A Tale from the ’50s: Sylvester Remembered

It’s not often you find someone who remembers a car from its heyday, but Mickey Himsl, younger brother of the acclaimed painter Art Himsl, remembers the days when Sylvester roamed the streets.

“Walnut Creek, California was the place to cruise back in the ’50s and ’60s—you’d have hundreds of cars on the main drag on the weekends. I can vividly remember seeing Sylvester, I was 16 years old and worked at the local movie theatre. My job was to put up the new movies on the marquee, but on cruise nights I wouldn’t get anything done, I’d just sit and watch the cars cruise by. I remember everyone took notice when Sylvester cruised through town. The loaded-up nailhead and the zoomies got your attention long before you saw its wild suspension and candy paint. It was far ahead of its time, and it really blew everyone away when you saw it. I’d say it was one of the top cars in the Bay Area back then.”

Second Opinion: Leonard Lopez, Dominator Street Rods

Leonard Lopez of Dominator Street Rods has been in the game a long time, has built many badass cars, and was inducted into the GNRS Hall of Fame last year. We asked Lopez what he thought about Sylvester III.

“It’s all cool, it’s period correct, and you can tell they spent tons of time on the car. I think it’s important that these older cars be brought back; it’s a part of our past. We’re at an interesting time since many of the pioneers are passing away. Reviving old relics like Sylvester is absolutely critical now. The guys [at New Metal] are young but they did an awesome job and got the point across that it’s an old car brought back from the past. These projects are a lot of work because it’s difficult to duplicate something that was less than perfect. Fabrication techniques weren’t what they are now so finding the fine line between an exact replica that would be rough by today’s standards and straying too far from the original car is difficult. I think it’s a really cool car.”